


Gloria's Secret

by ExcitedKitty27



Series: Humanballs [2]
Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, Pocket Monsters: Sword & Shield | Pokemon Sword & Shield Versions
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Angst, Conspiracy Theories, DressedinPinkShipping, F/M, Gen, Humor, I think?, I'm Bad At Tagging, Misunderstandings, Paranoia, Post-Game(s), Secret Relationship, Swearing, fluff if you squint
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-15
Updated: 2021-03-19
Packaged: 2021-03-24 06:21:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 12,513
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30068010
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ExcitedKitty27/pseuds/ExcitedKitty27
Summary: Raihan knows Gloria is up to something! Her behavior has completely changed and a cloaked figure keeps being photographed visiting her house. Everyone keeps dismissing him, but Raihan isn't going to let anyone hold any secrets anymore. Not after what happened three years ago.A follow up to "To Catch a Bede", but it isn't necessary to read that one to understand this one, though I'd appreciate it if you did.
Relationships: Beet | Bede/Yuuri | Gloria, Kibana | Raihan & Mary | Marnie
Series: Humanballs [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2212047
Comments: 7
Kudos: 9





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Someone asked for Raihan to suffer, and I am here to oblige that request. I figured the fact that Galar just sort of *moves on* after the Darkest Day doesn't really make much sense. Right under the Gym Leaders' noses a giant dragon was released that nearly destroyed the country and was only stopped by luck and some pimple-ridden teens. Well I decided that Raihan, the canonically strongest gym leader and strategizer, took that all very badly and is now a tin-foil hat wearing conspiracy theorist. Don't worry, he gets therapy for his PTSD at the end.
> 
> I should also mention that I headcanon Gloria and Hop as starting their adventures at 15, Bede at 16, and Marnie at 17. This is three years from then, so they're all 18+. Not strictly necessary since this isn't smut, but giving a 10 year old a monster is ridiculous.
> 
> Gonna be honest, the title's pun was too good to pass up, even if this story has absolutely nothing to do underwear.

Raihan unceremoniously dropped a binder on top of Marnie's desk, covering the paperwork she was busy reading. "I swear to you, Marnie, that something is happening with Gloria!"

Marnie looked less than impressed at the binder. "I'm pretty sure there is as much happening with Gloria as there is activity in that skull of yours."

"Exactly!" Raihan's face lit up before he noticed Marnie's deadpan expression. "No, wait. You're insulting me again, aren't you?

"Raihan, you are an absolute tool. I don't know how you managed to convince the general public otherwise." Marnie slid the binder towards Raihan. "Don't interrupt my work."

"The champion being involved in a conspiracy is directly relevant to your work as a gym leader." Raihan pushed the binder back. "At least open it before you insult me."

"Well, I could use a good laugh." Marnie flipped open the binder to a random page and was met with the front cover of a Galar's Gossip magazine. "I immediately regret my decision."

"No no no. You have to start from the beginning." Raihan flipped to the front of the binder, revealing pages of printed out social media posts. "So here you have Gloria's old internet activity. It's quite similar to my style of posting, with lots of selfies with the people she's with and long rambling descriptions to her photos with lots of tagging and hashtags."

"You call her social media similar to yours, but I see a distinctive lack of bare chest photos."

Raihan ignored Marnie's comment as he turned over a few pages. "But starting three months ago, her activity shifted. She posts rarely now, and it's all photos of her pokémon or scenery with the rare selfie mixed in. The descriptions are short with two hashtags at most and no one tagged. More importantly, there aren't any more photos of who she is with."

Marnie crossed her arms. "Maybe she just got sick of being nearly as obnoxious online as you are."

"That was my first thought until I noticed her schedule." Raihan flipped forward to marked up calendars. "Gloria for years has consistently booked herself for almost every League event across all of Galar. At the same time her social media activity changed, the number of events she went to dropped dramatically."

"The champion is taking some personal time off after years of dedicated service? That's very sinister, Raihan. I'm quivering in my boots."

"That was my second guess, but look at _this_." Raihan turned over the page to reveal the aforementioned gossip magazine. The title read "Mysterious Cloaked Figure Visits Champion".

Marnie squinted at the blurry photo. "People visit the champion all the time. You're concerned because one of them decided to wear a cloak?"

"A cloak and an Allister mask, actually. And they've been visiting Gloria consistently for three months now." Raihan again flipped the page to reveal dozens of photos of the cloaked figure, each marked with a date and time. "In fact, she's been spending increasingly more time with this figure and decreasingly less time visiting gym leaders. Bede in particular she almost never visits anymore."

"Raihan, please tell me you're not actually this dense. What you've managed to 'discover' is that Gloria has a lover." Marnie's face scrunched up as she gestured towards the binder. "Which means that all this represents an extreme invasion of her privacy. What Gloria does in her free time is none of your business."

Raihan slammed the table. "If it's a lover, then why doesn't she just tell me that?!"

Marnie looked mortified as she put a hand up to her forehead. "Oh dear Arceus, you actually went to Gloria with all this."

"Of course I went to Gloria with this! I don't want secrets held from me! In fact, she was the first person I went to, precisely _because_ I respect her privacy. But she didn't tell me it was something private! She instead denied anything was happening at all!" Raihan looked Marnie dead in the eyes. "But I'm not an idiot, Marnie. I know when something is fishy. And the last time I ignored my suspicions, Chairman Rose nearly destroyed Galar!"

Marnie stood up and pointed at Raihan. "And the last time you _followed_ your suspicions, you harassed poor Allister with claims that he had died twenty years ago!"

"And I still stand by those claims! That kid is one hundred percent a ghost!"

Marnie clenched her fists and sat back down, her eyes reminiscent of a stalking Liepard. "Stay away from Gloria's personal life."

Raihan scoffed. "Is that a threat?"

"No, it's a promise that I will kick your bombastic arse all the way to Kalos if you don't."

Raihan picked up his binder and started walking out of Marnie's office. "I _will_ find out what's going on. 

Marnie shouted as Raihan left, "I'll get Piers to assist me in your arse whooping if I need to!"

* * *

It was a vain hope, but it was all Raihan had left. Marnie hadn't revealed anything about Gloria except a fiercely protective attitude towards her, and Raihan’s visits to the other gym leaders somehow proved even less fruitful. Bede was always uncooperative and antagonistic to Raihan's efforts, but maybe he might know something about Gloria, or at least inadvertently reveal something in his insults. "Bede, do you know why Gloria has been acting so strangely?"

Bede froze as he exited the Ballonlea gym's back entrance at the end of his work day. He snapped his neck to the side to see Raihan standing in a casual green t-shirt and jeans and holding a big black binder in both hands. "I hope you're not here to bother me with another of your idiotic conspiracies."

Raihan presented the binder to Bede. "Trust me, it pains me to tell you I might need your help."

"And it gives me no pain to tell you 'no.'" Bede turned and began his way home, but Raihan had come prepared for this. Bede had a fragile ego, and that was a weakness Raihan could exploit. 

"And here I thought the great Bede would be offended that the champion of Galar has stopped visiting his gym."

That got Bede's attention. He spun around and marched back up to Raihan. "What are you talking about?!"

Raihan opened the binder to the calendar pages and showed Bede. "See for yourself. Gloria stopped visiting you three months ago. 

Bede pointed out the numerous blank spots. "Look again. She stopped visiting _everyone_."

"Yes, but she still _sometimes_ visits the other gym leaders. She stopped visiting you almost entirely." Raihan gave a wide smirk. "Don't tell me you didn't notice the champion ignoring you!"

"Give me that!" Bede ripped the binder from Raihan and quickly flipped through the numerous pages. "Holy shit, Raihan! This all qualifies as stalking!"

Raihan crossed his arms. "All the information here is publically available. Even the photos were all taken in public locations, and I didn't even take them. Other people did and then uploaded them online. Nothing in there is illegal."

Bede stopped for a moment on the Galar's Gossip page. "No, but it makes a damn good case for Gloria to issue you a restraining order! And a gossip magazine, really? Didn't even know they still made these things." 

"I keep tabs on all the biggest League members. This binder is just the compilation of Gloria's suspicious activity. I've got a filing cabinet for every Gym Leader back home. And for your information, I only have that magazine because I noticed it in the supermarket check-out lane while I was thinking about Gloria."

Bede settled on the photos of the cloaked figure. His eyes narrowed. "Then I stand corrected. This makes an excellent case for paranoid schizophrenia."

"It's not paranoia when I was proven right about Chairman Rose! And because I dismissed it at the time, innocent people were put in danger!"

Bede looked up from the binder. "That's post-traumatic stress disorder."

"Bede, it's just to make sure everyone is safe. I don't feel sane unless I do all this."

"Sounds like obsessive compulsive disorder."

"It's also a habit. Once I started doing it, I couldn't stop."

"Possibly autism spectrum disorder? Or maybe just an addictive personality. That would make sense, given your constant need for social media likes."

"How do you know all these disorders?!"

Bede shrugged and handed the binder back to Raihan. "I used to be a psychic pokémon trainer. Most of my pokémon still have a psychic type, actually. And unlike you, I do see a shrink. I can give you her business card if you'd like."

Raihan almost stopped to consider Bede's words, but then he noticed Bede never answered his question. "You're deflecting! Did you or did you not notice that Gloria has been ignoring you?"

Bede paused. "That assumes she's been ignoring me."

"So she _has_ been visiting you? Just off the books?" Raihan was giddy. He had caught Bede hiding something, but he wasn't yet sure what it was. He felt like one of those lawyers in the courtroom shows Raihan sometimes watched.

Raihan could see the gears turning in Bede's head. "I never said _that_ —"

"So she hasn't been visiting?" Raihan regained his smirk. 

"Raihan, not everything is a conspiracy!"

"Then give me a straight answer."

"I would if you would just shut your mouth for 30 seconds!" Bede rubbed his forehead. "Have you perhaps _considered_ that there are other methods of communicating with Gym Leaders other than direct formal visits? I know Gloria hasn't been ignoring me because we've been messaging, you moron! I would have thought the man _spying_ on all of us would've realized that Gloria and I have become close friends over the past few years! Maybe you would be close friends with her, too, if you didn't stalk everyone you know!"

Raihan pressed further. "That's still a radical change of behavior, and it all coincides with the appearance of the cloaked figure!"

"The cloaked _figure_?" Bede started laughing. "This is rich! Here you are trying to play detective, but you haven't yet noticed the obvious!" 

"What do you mean? Don't tell me you think the cloaked figure is a lover, too!"

Bede was now the one smirking. "I don't know if I should tell you what I mean."

"Don't tease me!"

Bede's smirk grew wider. "What do I get in return if I tell you?"

Raihan thought for a moment. "I will leave you completely alone for a month."

"And?"

Raihan sighed. Bede would accept nothing less than the humiliation of Raihan as payment. "I'll tell my fans you beat me at an arm wrestling competition."

"Deal." Bede took the binder back from Raihan and flipped to the photos of the cloaked figure and pointed at two in particular. "Look at these photos. The 'figure' is up against the same surroundings here, but you can see that the height of the figures are clearly different. This isn't the same person at all, it's multiple people. I give two theories for this. The first is that Gloria has been initiated into some kind of cult, and multiple cult members keep visiting her house all dressed in the standard cult attire."

Raihan nodded. "What's the second theory?"

Bede's smirk returned in full force. "The second theory is that maybe the people visiting her are sick of people like you spying on their every movement and just want some actual privacy." Bede pulled out a brochure and handed it to Raihan along with the binder. "But since you're _so_ concerned that the champion has gotten sick of public affairs, how about _you_ try visiting every event in Galar for three years? Here's a good place to start. I expect to see you at tomorrow night's exhibition match for charity, along with every other big event on that Ballonlea schedule."

Bede walked off as Raihan processed what had just happened. Raihan's plan had worked. Bede had just unintentionally revealed something critical in his taunting.

Raihan had long since known about the height discrepancies, but they only started appearing in the last month and a half. It made sense that someone paranoid enough to completely hide their face and body would start taking measures to further obscure their identity once they realized people were tracking their visits. 

No, it was the fact that Bede himself knew about the height discrepancies that was a crucial clue. It had taken two weeks of intense trigonometry for Raihan and the internet detectives tracking this mystery to confirm the several inch fluctuation between the recent snapshots. There was no way Bede could be so certain about it after just glancing at the photos for the first time.

That meant that Bede had to have already known about the discrepancies, which left only two options: either Bede had already been tracking this conspiracy as contrary to his implications, or he was involved somehow in the precautions the cloaked figure was taking.

Raihan glanced down at the schedule Bede had given him. What if—?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gonna be honest, my Marnie is inspired by Blackadder. As Galar is a British inspired region, I figured at least one of my characters should have the famous subtle British sarcasm, and who better than the Princess Goth Girl herself. Here's a clip from Blackadder for comparison: https://youtu.be/y8wdynZ0iWg.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So "in a few days" apparently meant less than 24 hours. Making Raihan suffer is a nice distraction from the stresses of my life. As mentioned before Chapter 4, the Epilogue, is already done, while Chapter 3 is about half way finished.
> 
> Once again, I try to vet these things, but comment any typos and I'll fix them.

Bede could never get over how nerve-racking it was to visit Gloria. Not that he didn't want to see her: on the contrary, he found himself constantly counting down the hours to each of their dates. Instead, what was nerve-racking was making sure no one found out about what he was doing. 

Bede had tried putting on casual clothing and messing with his hair, but that didn't work very well. Bede was too well known, and his fangirls were too numerous. He was constantly stopped for autographs and photos on his path to Gloria's house in Wedgehurst.

Still, Bede couldn't just be seen constantly visiting Gloria personally. The media would have a field day, especially once they found out what he did _inside_ Gloria's house.

He had decided very early on that the best method was to just entirely cloak himself. He had even bought one of the replica Allister masks they sold at Stow-on-Side Gym gift shop to cover his face with. It didn't exactly make Bede nondescript, but it was better to be gawked at as a mysterious figure than Gym Leader Bede.

Of course, the paparazzi had already noticed his visits months ago. When he had found photos of him entering Gloria's house online, he had nearly had an aneurysm until Gloria pointed out that the photos were only trending because no one could figure out who the figure in the cloak was. They had laid together on her couch that day laughing at all of the guesses people were making. One thing was abundantly obvious: no one thought the figure was Bede.

Bede then tried to argue that Gloria's own privacy was now compromised, but she just smiled. Ever since she became champion, everyone had been spreading rumors about her love life. She had made it a game to give as many contradictory answers as possible to the press and her fans. She suggested Bede relax and try doing the same.

So Bede started having fun with his disguise. He began by swapping the color of his cloak with every visit. Then he messed with his height, putting lifts in his shoes for some visits or crouching under the cloak for others. The fans went bananas. No one could agree on what was going on, and people were decreasingly sure that he was even a romantic partner.

Bede's second problem was the transit. If people always saw him travel from Ballonlea to Wedgehurst, they would realize who he was immediately. This conundrum Bede also quickly solved. He would take a sky taxi to a random town, don his mask and cloak, and then take the train to Wedgehurst. 

Of course, people were now confronting Bede while he was in disguise, despite his attempts to keep a low profile. His disguise was now a celebrity of its own, and a few even tried to rip off his mask and cloak. So aside from Gloria, Allister was the only one Bede decided to entrust with his anonymity issue, as Bede was sure Allister of all people would understand the importance of wanting privacy. In response, Allister happily taught him a few sleight of hands tricks to avoid being caught maskless or cloakless.

Still, Bede worried. People may be dumb, but the hivemind wouldn't stay fooled forever. The pieces would eventually be put together, and someone would figure out that it was Bede. Raihan especially had already noticed a link to him. All the more reason to enjoy his privacy while he still had it.

So he stayed hidden in an alleyway as he waited for Raihan to finish saying goodbye to Gloria. The obnoxious attention glutton took his last selfie and went on his way. Bede was very thankful that Gloria had had the foresight to warn Bede that Raihan had suddenly decided to drop by. While he seemed to be far off base about what was _actually_ happening, Bede didn't doubt that given the opportunity, Raihan would tackle him and forcefully rip off his disguise.

Bede's Rotom phone buzzed. He took it out to see a message from Gloria. "back door is unlocked"

Bede waited for Raihan to pass out of sight along with any other bystanders before hurrying behind Gloria's house and letting himself in.

"Just a moment, my Bede!" Bede could hear the sound of popping popcorn kernels from the kitchen. They're probably going to watch a movie today, then. Gloria never told him what they would do for their dates in advance, saying instead that pokémon should trust that their trainers have a plan. "Make sure you lock the back door!"

She didn't have to tell Bede twice. Bede turned the two locks on the back door and slipped out of his stuffy dark blue cloak and mask. He hung them up on the coat rack as he made his way to the living room, plopping himself down on the sofa.

He quickly spotted the gossip magazines on the coffee table. Raihan had probably brought them to interrogate Gloria with. Bede leaned in to see what nonsense the media was printing now only to be met with his own face staring back at him. Big bold print at the top of the page read "Galar's Worst Kept Secret".

They had found him out. Dear Arceus, it was all over. Someone had connected the dots. Everyone was going to find out exactly what a pathetic submissive pushover he really was. They would all know he spends his freetime roleplaying as the obedient pokémon of his biggest rival. He could already hear the taunts, posts, and worst of all _fan art_ , that must be all over the internet by now. He could never reclaim his reputation after this. He already had it bad enough with the way fangirls harassed him. Now every single one of them was going to know exactly the button they needed to press to make him melt like chocolate on a hot stove.

Gloria walked into the room holding a big bowl of popcorn only to find Bede hyperventilating and on the verge of tears. Her face questioned Bede, and so he weakly pointed at the coffee table. Gloria placed the popcorn bowl down on the table and took Bede into her arms as he nearly sobbed into her chest. "Bede, _breath._ I'm assuming you only read the headline, right?"

Bede looked up in confusion. He nodded.

Gloria gave a massive grin, and Bede couldn't help but feel calmer seeing it. "Look at the cover again, but this time, read the _tagline_."

Bede looked again, wiping his eyes clear of any stray tears. It was an image of him in his gym uniform mid-battle. The heading read as before: Galar's Worst Kept Secret. In smaller letters underneath read "When is the Twink of Ballonlea going to officially come out of the closet?"

Some ugly mix between a laugh and a sob bubbled out of Bede. He had overreacted. Not only had no one connected him back to Gloria, they were still beating the same dead horse they trumpeted when Bede was in the Champion's Challenge. Never before had Bede been so thankful for the media's obsession with conflating his refusal to follow macho culture with homosexuality. 

* * *

What Raihan was about to do wasn't strictly legal. Actually, it was strictly _illegal_ , but legality only mattered if you got caught, which Raihan wasn't planning on that happening.

Bede's present had proved a decisive clue in cracking the code of when the cloaked figure would show up. The appearance was correlated with large gaps in the Ballonlea and Stow-on-Side gym schedules. There were a few exceptions, of course, but Raihan's guesses were now over 68% accurate. Not a guarantee, but it was better than guessing blindly. 

When Raihan had figured this out, he had searched for the next time slot he was absolutely certain the cloaked figure would appear at. It would start at around 2 pm today. Adjusting for an hour travel time, that meant the figure would likely appear sometime after 3pm. So Raihan had excused himself from his gym and gave Gloria a surprise visit at 2:45pm. He had made up some bullshit about needing some help planning an exhibition match and she reluctantly invited him inside. As expected, Gloria's house looked neat, as if she had prepared for a visitor. 

Raihan had asked for directions to Gloria's bathroom, but took a small detour to her bedroom. He hadn't had any time to poke around, but he had had time to unlock her bedroom window. Raihan hadn't stuck around very long after that, much to Gloria's relief. Pausing only to take a selfie in her doorway(it would have been too suspicious for him not to), Raihan had walked away from Gloria's house with a skip in his step.

Of course, the cloaked figure probably thought they were being slick hiding in an alleyway, but Raihan had scoped out that spot earlier, among a dozen other possible hiding places. They should've known better than to challenge the master of environments to a game of hide and seek. But Raihan went on his way, pretending he hadn't seen anything.

Now Raihan was camping in the bushes around Gloria's house, making sure no one was nearby as he lifted the window to Gloria's bedroom and let himself inside. Raihan was grateful Gloria's home was all one story. He had cracked jokes in the past about the Champion of Galar buying a single story shack right next to nowhere, but he was currently eating all of his words. 

Raihan tried to not examine Gloria's bedroom too closely as he crept towards the door leading into the hallway. Sure, he was breaking and entering, but it was for a good reason. Searching a woman's bedroom, however, just felt classless.

Muffled voices sounded through the door as Raihan creeped it open.

"Right, are you going to relax now?"

That was clearly Gloria's voice, but it sounded _different_. Almost more assertive than her usual casual tone.

"I-i think so."

Was that Bede? While Gloria had sounded different, Bede sounded almost unrecognizable. His voice was shaking, without his usual snarky undertones. It did made sense the figure was Bede: that kind of paranoia over being seen fit his usually reserved and closed-off behavior.

"Good, we got a busy day ahead of us, my Bede."

 _My Bede_. Those words were a gut punch to Raihan. It sounds like Marnie might be right; Raihan _was_ just being paranoid. After all his detective work, the answer was so mundane: Gloria was dating Bede. Of course the proud Bede would want to hide that he was dating his biggest rival. This was all just another red herring to the real conspiracies in Galar.

As Raihan turned back around to leave, something shiny caught his eye. On one of Gloria's dressers sat a glass case containing a strange looking pokéball.

Well, while Raihan was here, there was no reason he couldn't get a leg up on his competition. Raihan got closer and lifted the glass. The ball had a reflective blue top with a bright yellow bottom. It didn't look like any ball Raihan had ever seen. Perhaps it was custom made, which likely meant it held something Gloria considered very important.

Against his better conscious, Raihan picked up and shrunk the ball, inserting it into his Rotom phone for analysis. He frowned. The ball wasn't interfacing correctly, which meant it was unlicensed. That wasn't a good sign: the only two types of unlicensed balls were prototypes and black market pokéballs.

Still, there had to be data of the registered pokémon somewhere in the ball in order for it to function. Could Rotom read that? Raihan set his Rotom to reconstruct a model of the data, and then nearly tumbled as the Rotom displayed the results. The data was Bede. This pokéball was registered to _capture_ _Bede_.

Gloria's voice echoed through the room. "How have you been doing my sweet little pokémon?"

Holy shit. _Holy shit_. Raihan slinked back towards the door and reached his head into the hallway. He could vaguely see the living room through the hallway and saw Gloria and Bede facing each other on her couch.

Raihan couldn't help but feel Bede's response sounded _afraid_. "I—"

"I'm teasing you, Bede. Pokémon don't speak. Here, I got your nature mint in my pocket, though it looks like you're already in a docile mood."

As excited as Raihan had been to uncover a conspiracy, now that he was facing one head on, he could feel his stomach doing backflips. Raihan could never imagine Bede taking this kind of behavior, but maybe he just _like_ _s_ it. Maybe he was sitting there with a big stupid grin on his face as Gloria taunted him. Raihan didn't want to believe that the Champion of Galar herself was...

No no no. That couldn't be the case. Raihan took out his phone's camera and zoomed in on Bede's face. There were tears in his eyes.

If that wasn't bad enough, Raihan watched in horror as Gloria waved a mint in front of Bede's nose. Bede's face immediately relaxed as he drooped his body against Gloria. Gloria had called it a "nature mint", but nature mints didn't work on people. Then again, neither did pokéballs, but here Raihan was holding a pokéball with the data of Bede. 

"Now let's have some fun, my Bede."

Raihan tripped over himself as he threw himself out Gloria's window and fled from Gloria's house. Bede was being controlled by Gloria. Raihan didn't know how, or whether it was drugs, mind control, or just plain extortion, but Bede was compromised.

Who else was compromised? Who else did Gloria have under her manipulative thumb? Who could Raihan trust? Counter intuitively, Raihan realized that there was only one person he _could_ trust to not be compromised. The Gym Leader who had always trusted Gloria the most and was fiercely loyal to her. After all, Gloria would have no reason to try and control someone who already unconditionally supported her.

Raihan needed to see Marnie.

* * *

Bede looked adorable as he curled up against Gloria as the movie played. His eyes were struggling to stay open and he let out a yawn. It had been a few hours since Bede's near breakdown, but their nature mint roleplay had still worked like a charm in calming Bede down.

It was just regular mint, of course, but Bede found it gave him a sort of mental excuse to slip away and pretend everything else in his life didn't exist. That Bede was simply someone else for a moment. Their first date, initially plagued by Bede's constant anxiety and natural resistance to authority, had taught them the lesson that Bede needed that kind of release.

After that, they had spent some time going through the gossip magazines, laughing at the ridiculous rumors people were spinning up. Gloria could tell Raihan prodding was eating at Bede, and so she figured he had needed a reminder that the media and their fans can be quite stupid. It turns out she exactly right, as indicated by Bede's extreme panic earlier.

Finally, Gloria had turned on her TV and put on the type of RomCom that Bede normally wouldn't be caught dead watching. The two had happily snuggled as they munched their popcorn and vaguely watched the movie, far more infatuated with each other than the moving images on the screen.

Gloria giggled as she stroked Bede's hair. He looked like a spoiled Purrloin as he met her touch and practically purred. Gloria's eyes widened as she suddenly remembered something. Gloria had completely forgotten: she had bought Bede a gift the other day. She wasn't quite sure what his reaction would be, but she thought he'd look adorable in it. Not that his reaction mattered too much. If he didn't like it, he would only complain about it later. Right now, he'd let her do practically anything to him.

Gloria got up, much to the pouting annoyance of Bede. "I'll be right back. I just remembered that I got a gift for you. Let me grab it from my bedroom."

Bede's eyes followed Gloria as she headed down her hallway and entered her bedroom. Out of muscle memory, she swung her head to view Bede's pokéball with a smile, only to notice a distinct lack of a shiny blue and yellow sphere

Gloria scrambled towards the dresser as she examined the glass case. The top of the case was set aside from the bottom. Gloria frantically scanned her room as she searched for the ball. Maybe she had absent-mindedly placed it somewhere else. She did like to sometimes pick it up and feel it in her hand.

A chill breeze brushed Gloria and she snapped her head to see one of her windows left open. Glancing outside, she saw the bushes below had been trampled on. 

Gloria's eyes narrowed. Raihan. He had acted suspicious when he had visited her out of the blue earlier, but would he really break into her house and steal a pokéball? A small part of Gloria whispered back to her that he might if he knew what it was, making Gloria shiver.

Gloria peaked out of her bedroom to glance at Bede, who was now lying down on her couch with his eyes closed. No need to panic him yet, especially after what had happened earlier.

Gloria whipped out her Rotom phone and dialed a number. Marnie would help. She always helped. Gloria just prayed her pokéball wasn't stolen by some random kid looking for a powerful pokemon or a media reporter searching for their next scoop.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Raihan strikes me as the definition of "too smart for their own good". It's my only explanation for how he lost 10-0 to the himbo extraordinaire Leon. Raihan comes up with these masterful plans while Leon just says "Ha ha, Charizard go roar." It's like that saying that a newbie is more dangerous to a chess grandmaster than a mediocre chess player, cause the newbie is more unpredictable.
> 
> Gonna be completely honest, Raihan turning to Marnie for help is a little contrived, but I don't really care. The script says more Raihan and Marnie banter, so more Raihan and Marnie banter you're getting.
> 
> I do plan to write a prequel to this story of Bede and Gloria's first date that is just pure Bede and Gloria romantic fluff with maybe a dash of angst mixed in. Sorry that this story is more plot oriented, but I just couldn't get this idea out of my head. But it sure would be a real shame if Bede's worst fears became true and someone drew fan art of him acting as Gloria's pokémon, wink wink, nudge nudge.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I decided to split what was supposed to be the third chapter into two separate parts. It was getting a bit too long, and I felt especially with the perspective changes, it would just be easier to understand by enforcing a split to help the audience get their bearings.

Marnie sighed as she stared at an incident report form. She had been spending years trying to discipline the Spikemuth gym trainers and dismantle their rambunctious Team Yell tendencies, but every once and awhile they would cause yet another PR disaster. 

Marnie took out a piece of letter paper and started writing her response.

> Dear Ms. Johnson,
> 
> I am sorry to hear that my gym staff treated your son poorly. I take full responsibility for the incident, and give my assurance it will not happen again. Here at Spikemuth, we have a no tolerance policy for hurtful behavior from our staff. An investigation will be conducted, and harsh disciplinary actions will be taken against the perpetrators.
> 
> If you wouldn't mind, I would like to apologise in person to you and your son. Let me know when you are free, and I will find the time to visit.
> 
> Sincerely,  
>  Gym Leader Marnie  
>  _Marnie_

Marnie groaned and dragged her hands down her face as one of her staff entered her office. "Uh, Marnie?"

"Please tell me this isn't a second incident."

"No, it's Raihan. He wants to see you."

Marnie frowned. Raihan didn't usually follow such formalities. He always just barged right into her gym and office. "Let him in."

Raihan looked pale as he walked in, his posture and stride conservative. He glanced at the staffer. "I hope you aren't offended when I say I need to talk to Marnie alone. We need to discuss something sensitive."

Marnie gave a nod to the staff, who slipped out of the room and shut the door. "What are you—"

Raihan put his finger to his lips and gave a harsh shush. _"Keep your voice down. We can't risk anybody hearing this."_

He pulled a pokéball out of his pocket and handed it to Marnie. She opened her mouth to question him, only for him to give another shush. She examined the ball. It wasn't a type she had ever seen before. The top was glossy and blue, while the bottom was a bright yellow. 

Marnie instinctively went to press the center button, but Raihan physically stopped her. _"Don't open it! Just scan it with your Rotom phone."_

Marnie obliged and took out her phone. She shrunk the ball and stuck it into the receptacle. The Rotom stuttered for a moment, as if unsure, before prompting the information about the ball.

"It just spits out nonsense."

Raihan gave another irritated shush. _"Of course it does! As far as I can tell, it's an unlicensed prototype ball, which means it doesn't have proper Rotom firmware, but Rotom can still construct a 3d image of the registered entity from the data."_

Marnie's frown deepened. Unlicensed pokéballs had a reputation of being illegal blackmarket items, but Raihan looked about as comfortable with the concept as Marnie felt. He probably just confiscated the ball from some kid and wasn't sure what to do about the pokémon inside.

Marnie asked Rotom to project a 3d image of the registered pokémon and nearly dropped her phone. Standing between Raihan and Marnie was a slowly spinning holographic Bede.

Marnie shut off the image and placed her phone on her desk. She aggressively whispered to Raihan, _"Stay right here. I'm going to send my staff home for today."_

Putting on her best poker face, Marnie exited her office and approached a group of her staff. "Why don't you all take the rest of the day off. My treat."

One of them spoke up. "You _never_ let us off early unexpectedly."

"Are we in trouble?" piped another.

"You will be if every single trainer, secretary, and janitor doesn't exit this gym immediately." Marnie crossed her arms as they all scurried away to inform the others.

As calmly as she could, Marnie entered her office. As soon as the door was closed again, Marnie slouched against it and let out a shuttered breath. She snapped her head to Raihan. "You better explain to me what the _fuck_ that was right now before I call the police."

"It's not mine," Raihan replied quickly. "Believe me, I'm just as terrified by it as you are. But I don't know what to do! That's why I ran to you as soon as I discovered what it was."

" _What do you mean_ _'you don't know what to do'_?! We turn it over to the league _right now_ and inform Bede!"

"But that's exactly the problem. Bede already knows about it. I found this ball in Gloria's house while _she was taunting Bede about owning it_. Or extorting him, or mind controlling him, or something! Because _he's_ the cloaked figure. I saw him crying on Gloria's sofa as she called him 'my Bede' and 'my pokémon'. He tried to speak but Gloria interrupted him and said 'pokémon don't speak'."

"How did you see all this?!"

Raihan somehow turned even paler. "I…snuck into Gloria's house."

" **You _what?!_** "

Marnie's phone rang. Raihan picked it up and presented it to Marnie while nodding. The call was from Gloria. Raihan mouthed 'act natural' as Marnie sat down and answered the call as casually as she could, putting the phone on speaker. "Hello?"

_"Hey, Marnie! You haven't happened to see Raihan recently, have you?"_

Marnie glanced towards Raihan, who furiously shook his head in response. "No. Why do you need him?"

Gloria chuckled over the phone. _"If I told you, I'm afraid you'll throttle him."_

Oh, Marnie was definitely going to throttle Raihan, but that could wait. "That doesn't sound ominous at all. What's he done this time?"

_"He visited me earlier today, and I'm just now noticing one of my pokéballs have gone missing. It's blue and yellow. It's one of Hop's prototype balls from when he was experimenting a few months ago. All the others were recycled so it's one of a kind."_

Raihan met Marnie's eyes and nodded. Gloria had just confirmed one of Raihan's claims. "So you think he stole it?"

 _"I'm not sure. I'm kinda hoping he_ did _steal, because that's an easier situation to deal with than the alternative. My bedroom window was left open, so it could have been anyone. If he hands it back to me, I might be relieved enough to forgive him."_

"Hold on one moment." Marnie put her phone on mute. "Raihan, just so we're clear, when we've got this situation all figured out, me and Piers will be kicking your arse for breaking into Gloria's bedroom."

Raihan responded in a small voice. "Duly noted."

Marnie unmuted the phone. "I'm going to drop the pretenses here. Is Bede still with you?"

_"How did y— Is Raihan with you? What nonsense has he been telling you now?"_

Gloria's reaction to the name Bede all but confirmed Raihan's story. "He's been telling me 'nonsense' you've just reaffirmed. Is Bede still with you?"

Gloria paused. _"Yes."_

"Listen, I want you and Bede to come to my gym office immediately. I don't want this all to become bigger than it has to, especially when I'm not sure how big it needs to be."

Another short pause passed. _"Does Raihan have the pokéball with him?"_

"Yes, and he already showed me the contents. For your own sake, I really hope this ball isn't what it appears to be."

That sent Gloria into a panic. " _I can explain—"_

"Then explain in person. I'm not going anywhere and I'm definitely not letting the himburglar escape either. I'll give you two hours to arrive." Marnie hung up the call and nearly tore her face off as her hands dragged down her head.

Raihan, meanwhile, was still trembling. "That was a really bad idea, Marnie. If Gloria is willing to own one of the most illegal items in Galar, how do you know she won't send thugs to come after us now that you have given her an advance warning? Even if we surprised her with a confrontation, she could probably beat both of our teams effortlessly and take her ball back. We should've contacted the other gym leaders before we did anything else."

Marnie leaned back into her seat. "Raihan."

"Yes?"

"Shut up."

* * *

Bede sat up from his prone position. Gloria had said she was going to go get something for him from her bedroom several minutes ago, but she hadn't returned yet.

Just as he had decided to go check on her, Gloria finally appeared from her hallway. Her face was worried. "Raihan stole your pokéball when he visited earlier. He's in Marnie's office, and has already shown her it."

Bede had to remember that he could speak. "How much does he know?"

It was strange to see Gloria look so concerned. Just a few moments ago, she seemed so confident and invincible. "I'm not sure, but I suspect it's a worrying mix of 'too much' and 'too little'. Marnie wants us there within two hours, which means we need to leave immediately."

The next hour and a half was a blur to Bede. He vaguely remembered putting on his cloak and mask while Gloria called a Sky Taxi. Some small part of him noted that this would be the first time he would publically appear next to Gloria while in disguise. The larger part drowned this out with images of Gloria and him scandalized and resigning, or even worse, imprisoned.

Sometime during the long taxi ride, Bede turned to Gloria and whispered, "This is all my fault. I shouldn't have given you that ball. I knew it was illegal and dangerous, but I was too scared to tell you how I felt directly."

Gloria simply sighed. "Bede, I'm the moron who not only accepted that ball, but kept it out in plain sight. I'll take blame if I have to, for both yours and Hop's sakes."

Bede pleaded back, "Please don't." 

They both stayed silent the rest of the trip.

Bede could feel the eyes on them as they stepped out of the taxi. Checking social media, Spikemuth was already buzzing about the gym suddenly closing early, and now here the champion was with her mystery partner walking right towards the building. Bede never felt more vulnerable.

Marnie was there at the entrance to let them inside, and they all walked in silence towards Marnie's office. The atmosphere of the dark building felt ominous when devoid of the usual rowdy trainers.

Bede concentrated beneath his mask. His scowl and smirk usually came to him so naturally, but now, when he needed it, he just felt his face drooping. Still, Bede was able to muster what he hoped was an annoyed and dismissive face. It was better than looking like a Sawbuck caught in the headlights.

Entering Marnie's office, Bede saw two empty chairs on his right and a single chair containing a scowling Raihan on his left. Marnie sat in her big chair behind her desk as Gloria sat on the right. 

Bede was about to sit down himself until Raihan coughed and pointed at Bede's head. Right, Bede still had his disguise on. He took a deep breath before removing his mask and pulling down his hood. Raihan and Marnie looked unsatisfied at this, so Bede stuck his tongue out at them and sat down. He would be keeping the rest of his cloak on.

"Right, we're doing this formally." Marnie pulled out a stack of papers. "That means no interrupting, no shouting, no insults, and especially no sarcasm. That means you, Bede."

Bede scoffed. "Why are you singling _me_ out? You're more sarcastic than I am!"

"Yes but I drop my sarcasm when things get serious. Your sarcasm becomes worse." Marnie sent him a split second smirk, before her serious face returned. "I don't want _any_ miscommunication. I thought it was best to have Bede speak first but Raihan objected, claiming, and I quote…"

Marnie squinted down at the top piece of paper. "'As Bede is potentially under threat of extortion/brainwashed/heavily drugged, he is an 'unreliable' witness.' As much as it pains me to say this, Raihan has a valid point given the nature of his accusations."

Bede glanced at Gloria, who met his eyes. She was spot on about Raihan knowing a troubling mix of "too much" and "too little".

Marnie continued, "Because of this objection, here's how the order we will go in. First, Raihan will state his accusations. Then Gloria gets to respond to those accusations. Bede gets to affirm and deny Gloria and Raihan's statements and make his own. Then _I_ speak." 

Bede rolled his eyes and raised his hand. "Question for the court: can we have an actual conversation instead of pretending we're lawyers?"

Marnie stared Bede down. "After you three decided to rope me into a melodramatic soap opera involving two seperate heavily illegal actions? No. We're doing this my way now."

Bede sheepishly lowered his hand.

"Raihan, present your case."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm thinking about maybe updating my work description to also include Bede and Gloria's point of view and at least preface this entire thing with a basic explanation about the pokéball and their relationship, etc. Obviously just something short, sweet, and dramatic. Though I think the story might work better on its own as a slowly revealing mystery from Raihan's perspective rather than the exercise in dramatic irony it was originally intended to be.
> 
> Complete tangent, but I wonder if my characters come off a little strangely. I mean, they're all meant to be strange, but maybe they're strangely strange. Like an odd mix between my own autistic cluelessness and the usual superhuman observation skills of book characters. I think that's probably a result of my writing being a sort of mix of Isaac Asimov's dialogue-focused prose with my own internal introspection style.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I finally finished this! Gonna be honest, I didn't expect it to turn out this long, but it just sort of grew and grew until it had completely outgrown my original design.
> 
> I probably vetted this chapter for errors the least, mostly because I was worried about trying to keep perspective consistency among the characters and make sure their stories/lies/misperceptions lined up. So if you see anything kind of typo or grammar mistake, feel free to point it.

Raihan took a deep breath and steadied his trembling hands. He could do this. He pulled out his Rotom phone and set up a screen projection of the data read from the incriminating pokéball. "This is the data I found on the pokéball in Gloria's house. You'll notice that almost all of it is nonsense."

Bede opened his mouth, presumably to make a snarky comment, but he appeared to change his mind after glancing at Marnie. 

"This is because Rotom is attempting to read data that either doesn't exist or is improperly formatted. Either way, this indicates that it was not a league licensed ball." Raihan glanced around the room to make sure everyone was still following him before continuing. "That's not too strange by itself . All amateur apricorn pokéballs are technically unlicensed, for example. And while this is clearly a modern pokéball, it isn't necessarily a blackmarket item. It's far more likely to just be a prototype. Gloria, being a league representative, would have legal access to those kinds of pokéballs for testing purposes.

"Or at least, that's what I thought until, out of curiosity, I asked Rotom to try and analyze the registered pokémon. Then I saw this." Raihan swapped his projection to that of the Bede data inside the ball. The fake Bede swirled in place in the center of the room as the real Bede averted his eyes and tried to put his hood back on until Marnie shot him a dirty look. "I would say he's lucky that it registered his clothes, because otherwise that image of him we're observing would be entirely—"

"Raihan…" Marnie warned.

Raihan coughed. "Sorry. Anyways, this means that the pokéball is registered to capture Bede—"

"No it doesn't," Bede interrupted. "Is this what this is all about? What an absolutely ridiculous idea! Such a thing is completely impossible! No pokéball on the planet has ever been able to register a human!"

Marnie was about to butt into Bede's rant before Raihan stopped her and gave her a wink. "So what's your alternative?"

Bede flushed up and looked down. "That pokéball is just a souvenir containing a digital model of me. I'm pretty sure both of you have already figured out me and Gloria are dating. I gave the ball to her as a…"

"Symbolic gesture," Gloria finished.

"What an excellent explanation!" Bede and Gloria looked surprised at Raihan's excitement, but Raihan figured they hadn't yet realized they just inadvertently trapped themselves. "Marnie, give me the ball. Let's test to see who's right."

Immediately, the two of them started panicking. Raihan saw Gloria freeze as Marnie tossed him the ball. Bede surged forward to try and grab it, but Raihan was quicker. Raihan caught the ball and pressed the center button as Bede was half-way across the room. Bede's form melted into a bright light that was sucked up by the ball. A "souvenir", indeed.

Raihan immediately felt his victory tarnished by horror. "I… wow. I knew this was going to work, but actually _seeing_ it is terrifying."

Marnie looked to Gloria and asked, "So can Raihan just materialize Bede or…"

Gloria sighed. "It has standard pokéball controls."

"Any complications?"

"Not that I'm aware of."

Raihan took this as a confirmation that it was okay to release Bede and pressed the center button. The ball opened up and spilled light into the air, materializing into Bede. His legs wobbled a little as he regained his bearings, but he quickly sat back down and put his head into his hands.

Raihan took a minute to just stare at the ball. In his hands was near absolute power over Bede's body. To put a human in a pokéball was ownership, _slavery_ , and the more Raihan thought about it, the more he knew he couldn't let Gloria get away with it. 

"This ball is perhaps the most dangerous and illegal item in all of Galar," he said. "I imagine you both already know that. This alone is enough to get Gloria at minimum ten years in prison. Yet somehow, it's not even the worst part of this whole story."

Raihan again brought out his Rotom phone. "My influencer muscle memory came in handy, because while I was using my phone to zoom in to better see you, I had unknowingly taken a video. And this is what I saw—"

"Please don't," mumbled Bede, his face still held in his hands.

Raihan had the Rotom project the screen onto the wall of the office. As the video played, Raihan could quite clearly see Bede's tear stained face sniffing a mint given to him by Gloria. He immediately slumped over as Gloria whispered, _"Now let's have my fun, my Bede."_

Raihan closed the projection and silence filled the room. He attempted to read Marnie's expression. Her brow was furrowed, but her face gave no other indications of her thoughts.

Bede lifted his legs up onto his chair and curled his head into thighs. "Kill me."

Raihan ignored Bede; Raihan could help him later. For now, he needed to push further against Gloria. "Now, I'm not sure what you would expect us to believe, Gloria, but that looked like you actually _drugging_ Bede. To be honest, I'm not sure what you gave him. You called it a 'docile' nature mint before the video started, but those don't actually exist. Then again, up until today, I didn't think human catching pokéballs existed. Regardless, it's hardly a stretch to claim it's clearly a sedative."

In response, Gloria only sat silently with her head down.

"And given the nature of your conversations before this video, where you kept taunting Bede with your possession of this pokéball, I would go even further as to claim you are also extorting him." Raihan leaned back in his chair and turned to Marnie. "I rest my case."

* * *

That looked bad. That looked _really really_ bad. Bumbling and paranoid Raihan had managed to see and hear only the bits of her relationship with Bede that looked bad out of context.

Gloria sighed. There was no lying her way out of this one. She had to tell the truth, the _whole_ truth, and simply hope Raihan and Marnie believed her. Gloria glanced at Bede, still locked into a fetal position in a feeble attempt to hide. Well, Gloria could tell _almost_ the whole truth. "Right, I know how that all looked, but Raihan is completely wrong."

"Explain." Marnie leaned forward, but Gloria couldn't see anything past her poker face.

Gloria turned away under Marnie's stare and looked down. "It's easiest if I start from the beginning. Hop wanted help testing his new pokéballs, so he recruited me to repeatedly catch full health Wooloo to test the capture rate. It was going to take a while, so I invited Bede to help.

"About halfway through, I decided to open up one of my balls and tweak some of the internals. I knew a little about how the balls worked from what Hop had told me, and I had an idea about how I could improve them.

"As I prepared to catch a Wooloo with it, Bede made a mean comment about one of the Wooloo, and so I chucked my ball at him. It was supposed to be a joke and just bounce off his head, but to my horror, I saw it capture Bede."

"Yeah right!" Raihan gave a cruel laugh. "Do you really expect us to believe that you just happened to stumble upon the ability to capture humans b _y accident_? And even if you did, you still decided to keep—"

"Enough, Raihan!" Marnie finally broke her silence and gave Raihan a death glare. "You had your turn! Let her speak."

Gloria took a deep breath and continued. "I immediately released Bede from the ball and made sure he was alright. But after he confirmed he was okay, he said some rude things about Hop, and so I decided to tease him a little about being 'my pokémon' and 'my Bede'. I stopped at his insistence, but then…"

Gloria took another glance at Bede. He hadn't yet moved. Gloria was sorry, but she had to reveal Bede's biggest secret. "Well, the whole reason I've kept our relationship so secret was for Bede's sake. He insisted on absolute secrecy, which I've tried to comply with. Because on that day, after I had stopped teasing him, Bede told me he wanted me to treat him in the way I had suggested in my teasing."

"Bullshit!" Raihan interjected. "Then how do you explain the mint and the crying?"

"Bede wasn't _crying_ , he had already _cried_. He had misread a gossip magazine I had in my living room and thought his secret had been exposed. And the mint wasn't even a real nature mint, it was just a bit of mint-flavored gum. It was part of our roleplay."

"And the pokéball?"

"After being told what had happened, Hop was horrified. None of his other pokéballs exhibited the same properties as my modified ball, but he still destroyed them all and his research just in case. Except I managed to steal my ball before it was destroyed, and kept it ever since. Just as a curiosity."

"You—!"

Marnie shouted Raihan down. "I'm about to kick you out of my office! Stop interrupting!" Marnie turned to Gloria. "Please continue."

"I don't really have much else to say. Bede has been visiting me regularly for our secret dates, and that is all that has been going on." Gloria felt herself relax. There was nothing left she could do but hope for leniency. At least she had protected both Hop and Bede from blame.

"And what do you say to all this, Bede?" Marnie asked.

"Gloria is lying." Bede finally unraveled himself and sat up straight. "She almost told the truth, but still tried to lie."

"Bede," Gloria warned. She knew exactly what he was about to do. "Don't do this."

Bede ignored her. " _I_ gave her the pokéball, and I can prove it."

* * *

Raihan gawked at Bede as he stood up and walked over. He snatched the pokéball from Raihan's hand and held it up so everyone could see the center button. "In addition to registering a captured pokémon, every modern pokéball keeps a record of the trainer who threw them. Hop's balls may not be licensed by the League, but I'm willing to bet Hop used the latest generic center buttons. If that's the case, that means…"

Bede held his thumb on the center button for 7 seconds before a green ring of light surrounded it. "...the center button has fingerprint recognition."

Raihan certainly hadn't been expecting that, and Marnie looked just as confused. She asked, "What exactly does this mean?"

Bede sighed. "Gloria was trying to protect me and Hop. Her story of a modified pokéball isn't even possible. Capturing a human isn't something that can be done by simply wiggling around a few components. There was no 'modified ball'. I'm not sure how, but the way Hop designed his balls managed to bypass the usual limitations that even blackmarket balls fall under, and that quirk applied to all of them. So Hop destroyed all of them. I made _sure_ he destroyed all of them. All of them except one."

Gloria held her head in her hands. "One job, Bede. You had _one_ job. You just had to take your arrogant head out of your arse for ten seconds and accept my sacrifice."

"That wasn't ever going to happen, Gloria. I'm not throwing you under the bus." 

"So you throw yourself and Hop under instead?"

"Hop did exactly what he was supposed to in such a scenario. You did so as well. You fried the ball you originally caught me in. I caught myself in a different ball and then gave it to you to confess my feelings. Then I insisted you keep it."

The room erupted into absolute chaos.

"Don't listen to him, Marnie! He's innocent!"

"Don't believe either of them, Marnie!" 

"It's over, Raihan! I confessed already!"

"So did I! And I confessed before you! What you said is irrelevant!"

"Irrelevant? I proved you wrong!"

"You're both awful liars! Lies, all of it!"

"You have nothing to justify that on!"

"You two, stop trying to play white knight!"

 _ **"Everyone shut the fuck up** **!** **"** _Marnie's shout quickly brought silence to the room. "Thank you. I'm ready to make a judgement."

"A judgement?" Raihan was indignant. "Who said _you_ got to decide anything?"

"You and Gloria, actually, when you both turned to me for help." 

Raihan opened his mouth to argue, but shut it when he realized she had a point.

Marnie crossed her arms. "I think it's clear that what's happening between Bede and Gloria is consensual. Bede's fetishes aren't your business, Raihan, as troubling as they may seem. I say we leave them both be."

Raihan, Gloria, and Bede all looked up in surprise and exclaimed, "What?!"

"It's not a fetish!" Bede added, covering his rapidly flushing face. "It just… Shut up!"

Marnie snorted. "My apologies, Bede's insecurities. Regardless of what it is, Raihan has about as much evidence that Gloria is controlling Bede as Raihan does working brain cells."

Marnie couldn't be serious. Here was one of the most _illegal_ and _dangerous_ items in Galar, and Marnie was now bantering about the situation! Raihan spoke up, "That doesn't matter! This pokéball is still dangerous and absolutely an abuse of power! I know damn well that if anyone _else_ had one of these things, you'd beat their arse for it!"

Marnie simply shrugged. "Well yeah, because I wouldn't trust them with it."

Raihan decided he had had enough of Marnie's court games. If Gloria truly wasn't part of a conspiracy, then Raihan knew there was nothing she, Bede, or Marnie could do to stop him from getting the league involved. " _You_ may be willing to allow these kinds of devices to exist, but _I'm_ not."

Raihan picked up his cell phone and started dialing the police. He didn't see the strange look on Gloria's face as she reached into her bag.

* * *

Marnie stared slack jawed as Gloria quickly grabbed a pokéball from her bag and hurled it at Raihan. It opened up and Raihan turned into light that was sucked up into the ball. This action cancelled out the momentum of the ball, and it fell straight down along with Raihan's phone. Marnie could now see quite clearly that it was one of Hop's balls. 

_Swoosh_

_Wobble_

_Wobble_

_Wobble_

_Click!_

Bede glanced at Marnie, similarly stunned. Guess Bede didn't know Gloria had more of those pokéballs, either. Marnie found her voice first. "You destroyed them all, huh?"

Gloria had the decency to look sheepish. "I _may_ have kept a few more than I claimed. But I had a good reason."

Bede snorted. "Yeah, like self incriminating yourself?"

Marnie watched as Gloria lobbed a ball at Bede, knocking him on the head.

"We all just saw Raihan get captured by Hop's ball, right? But it just bounced off Bede." Gloria tossed a few balls to Marnie. "Try and catch him."

With permission granted, Marnie immediately hurled a ball at Bede, striking him in the stomach. Bede gasped and held his gut in his arms, wincing. "Could you both try not to throw those things at me like they're baseballs?"

"Sorry, force of habit." Marnie gave a slight smirk, and Bede returned a look that told her he knew perfectly well that she wasn't sorry. Marnie threw another ball at Bede's shoulder, and it again bounced off of him. "Gloria, you're a genius."

"Sadistic, more like. Much like you—" Marnie rewarded Bede's comment with another hard gut throw, knocking the wind out of him.

Gloria gave a wide smile. "Captured pokémon can't be recaptured."

Bede's eyes widened and he smacked his forehead. "The energy encryption mechanism! Registered pokémon have their physical energy encrypted with a unique key to prevent multiple pokéballs from registering the same entity. I can't be captured because I'm already encrypted."

Gloria flashed Bede a smile. "And so I'm protecting you by possessing your pokéball. If anything ever happened with human catching pokéballs, Hop's balls give us a defense against them."

Marnie started snickering.

Bede raised an eyebrow. "What's so funny?"

Marnie covered her mouth with a hand in an attempt to stop her laughter. "Sorry, I just realized. If you're 'encrypted' and Gloria possesses your pokéball, then your entire body is literally marked as belonging to Gloria. How's that for a hickey?"

Bede and Gloria flushed bright red and Marnie couldn't suppress her laughter. Gloria went to pick up the pokéballs lying on the floor, presumably to hide her face, while Bede put his hood back on and turned away.

Marnie calmed back down and sighed. "Seriously though. The longer you keep this hidden, the more people like Raihan are going to try and prod and poke at your relationship to figure out what exactly is going on. And you should _not_ be giving people a reason to be suspicious when you're busy hiding something much worse. I suggest officially announcing your relationship sooner rather than later."

"Speaking of Raihan…" Gloria held up one of the pokéballs. "What exactly do we do about this?"

* * *

Raihan was weightless. Or maybe it was more accurate to say he was sensationless. He didn't have a body that he couldn't feel. He just _was_. Nothing more, nothing less. It was strangely peaceful, and Raihan felt himself drift to sleep.

How long he slept, Raihan didn't know, but he did know his suddenly existent face and body had just slammed into the floor.

"Get up, Raihan."

That was Marnie's voice. Raihan's memories flooded back to him and he quickly sprung off the ground. He was still in Marnie's office, but Bede and Gloria were now noticeably absent.

Raihan whipped around to see Marnie still sitting at her desk with her hands folded. Raihan remembered was furious. He tried to speak, but all of his many thoughts bunched up at his throat leaving him to stand silently with his mouth open until one forced its way through. "That did not just happen!"

Marnie gave a wide smile that came off as unsettling. " _What_ happened?"

"Don't mock me!"

"I genuinely have no idea what you're talking about. Could you be specific?"

"Gloria just…" Raihan trailed off as he realized how embarrassing and ridiculous it sounded to say "Gloria captured me in a pokéball". A look at Marnie's eyes showed this is exactly what she was intending. "Oh, you _bitch!_ "

Marnie's grin only grew even wider. "As far as I'm aware, and as far as you can prove, the only thing that has happened is that I invited Gloria and Bede here to a meeting to discuss your trespassing on Gloria's property. You have three witnesses with good reputations to speak against you if you say otherwise, and I restarted your phone so your pokéball data cache is clear."

"Are you really going to put the entirety of Galar in danger because of your misplaced loyalty to Gloria?"

Marnie dropped her smile. "Look Raihan. You're a suspicious person. I've battled you before, and I know you have back-up plans to your back-up plans. Hop invented human-catching pokéballs by a complete fluke, and if he can do it by accident, then it is inevitable that one day someone else will figure it out. When that day comes, we need a plan."

"And what are you planning on doing? _Catching_ the criminals?"

"No, by catching _ourselves_. Gloria was planning on handing out Hop's balls to the gym leaders if a crisis over this ever came to pass. Once registered by one of Hop's balls, a person becomes immune to any other kind of capture device. The argument was convincing enough that both Gloria and I registered ourselves to pokéballs."

Raihan crossed his arms. "Well, _I'm_ unconvinced."

"I was hoping you’d say that, because Gloria and Bede agreed it meant I got to keep this." Marnie held up the pokéball Raihan was released from.

Raihan scowled, but Marnie put the ball away and continued, "Gloria and Bede have offered you a plea deal. Because Gloria previously broke into the Champion Tower under similar suspicions during the Darkest Day conspiracy, she decided it would be hypocritical to condemn you for breaking her houss."

Raihan's anger slightly calmed. "Ah good. Gloria has at least a gram of sense."

" _However,_ " Marnie raised a hand to quiet Raihan, "it was brought up that she was an adolescent when doing so, while you are, at least physically, an adult. Not only that, but you have shown obsessive paranoia and conspiracy mongering to the point of inhibiting your job as a gym leader. At Bede's suggestion, they will not report your burglary, but _only_ if you go to weekly therapy for your trauma regarding the Darkest Day. They even offered to help pay for it."

Raihan’s anger flared to a boiling point. "So I discovered that the champion was hiding something just as I suspected and you’re calling me crazy?!"

Marnie only tilted her head. "You _are_ crazy, Raihan. At this point, you’ve become more a danger to yourself than to others."

Raihan felt his anger grow and grow and grow and then...nothing. It had run out of fuel to burn and fizzled out into simple defeat. He turned to leave Marnie’s office. "Fine. So I’m free to go now?"

"Not so fast, Raihan." Something about Marnie’s tone put a pit in Raihan’s stomach. "You're forgetting my promise."

Raihan turned back around, confused. "What promise?"

"What exactly did I promise I would do if you didn't leave Gloria alone?"

Raihan's eyes widened in panic, and he tried to flee Marnie's office, but found his body ripped away from him as Marnie recalled him in the pokéball.

After a moment, his body was spit back onto the ground. Raihan flipped over and looked up to see Marnie hovering over him.

"I believe my exact words were 'I will kick your arse all the way to Kalos.'"

Raihan scrambled to his feet and backed up, but found only a wall behind him as Marnie inched closer. Marnie may be smaller than Raihan, but Raihan somehow got the impression she was towering over him as he stared down at her. 

"Here's what's about to happen. You're going to show me and Piers these 'filing cabinets' on the gym leaders that Bede said you mentioned having several days ago. Then Piers and I are going to examine each and every file you have on me."

Marnie had just handed Raihan a death sentence: Piers was going to murder him when he found Raihan's files. Raihan tried to struggle away from Marnie, but she pinned him to the wall.

"After that, your entire 'collection' is getting burned. Not just my files, but _all_ of them." Marnie smiled, making Raihan shrink against the wall. "Finally…"

Raihan gulped.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter is the epilogue, which is already done! Gloria finally gets to give Bede her gift and Raihan gets therapy! A very wholesome chapter that will leave you with a big smile 😊.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Glad this is finally finished. My next story, if I write a next story, will probably be a Bederia prequel story about their first secret date, and after that, likely something involving a possessive Gardevoir unless someone give me a better idea.

"What was the gift you were going to give me?"

Gloria looked down from her book to face Bede's head in her lap. He was staring up at her with lazy eyes. Gloria had decided after the whole stressful affair with Leon to let Bede decide what to do for this date. He had only thought about it for a moment before he decided he just wanted to cuddle on the couch for the time being. Bede hadn't moved much in the last thirty minutes until now. "What do you mean?"

"That day with Raihan. When you went into your bedroom, you said you had something to give me. What was it?"

Gloria gave a cheeky smile. "To be honest, it's more of a gift for myself than for you. Let me go get it."

Bede fell silent, but Gloria could see his head and eyes track her with curiosity as she got up and headed to her room. She dragged a small box out from under her bed and placed it on her bed. Opening the box, Gloria kept the item inside hidden behind her back as she walked back towards Bede on the couch.

"Ta da!" Gloria presented the Wooloo head band she had bought several weeks ago. It had taken forever to arrive, but Gloria thought it was worth every penny. After putting it on Bede's head, Gloria giggled at Bede's puzzled look. "You know how years ago I used to poke fun at how your hair looks like a Wooloo? Well, with those Wooloo ears and horns, now you can't possibly deny that you're my precious Wooloo."

Bede only stared at Gloria blankly. She shifted uncomfortably.

"I mean, if you want, I can always return—" Gloria was cut off by Bede practically pouncing on her to kiss her. After a moment, he separated from her and nuzzled his nose against hers. Gloria couldn't help but giggle again. "I guess you like it."

* * *

_"In a shocking turn of events, Champion Gloria and Gym Leader Bede have publicly announced that they are in a romantic relationship. The infamous "cloaked figure" fans have been speculating about for months is, in fact, Bede. Bede explained his behavior as simply 'wanting privacy from the prying paparazzi', but our reporters suspect—"_

Raihan nursed his black eye with a small ice pack as he watched the lobby television. He still couldn't believe he was letting Gloria, Bede, and Marnie extort him into going into some stuffy room with an overpaid sheep and talk about "his feelings" like some kind of girl.

Raihan didn't need this; he needed to be out searching for the truth. There was something odd going on with Galar, but Raihan's two biggest trails turned out to both be red herrings: Allister was a ghost and Gloria and Bede were dating. Those trails were big news, sure, but something bigger was happening. Raihan was sure of it, but Marnie and Piers had burned all of Raihan's work in front of him, setting him back to square one.

"Raihan."

Raihan looked up as a secretary entered the lobby. "Yes?"

"Ms. Johnson is ready."

Raihan picked himself up and followed the secretary into the hallway. They passed half a dozen doors before the secretary pointed to one. The placard read, as expected, "Ms. Johnson". How patronizing for the secretary to walk him here. Raihan could've found this door himself.

Raihan huffed as he opened the door. Inside sat two armchairs facing each other with a large window with giant curtains behind one of them. In the armchair facing the window sat a woman with ginger hair, presumably "Ms. Johnson". The abstract paintings that littered the walls were so clustered that there was barely any wall left to see. What a disgusting waste of a room.

"Raihan, please sit down."

Closing the door, Raihan obliged, if only to get this whole mess over with. "Hi, you already know who I am. I'm not here because I want to be."

The woman nodded. "I can see that. Give me some time, and I'll fix that."

"I doubt it."

"You'd be surprised. Bede was extremely reluctant to come here his first time, too. I promise you he left that first session very happy."

Raihan gave a yawn as he crossed his legs. "So how does this bogus work?"

The woman put a finger up to her chin. "Well first, my thugs usually come out of those curtains to make sure you stay in that chair."

Raihan felt both of his arms held down. He glanced to both sides to notice two men holding him in place. Raihan was too shocked to speak: he had fallen right into a trap.

"Then, I release my Hypno." The woman unhooked a pokéball from her belt and materialized a Hypno to her left. "I'll admit he does most of the heavy lifting of these sessions."

Raihan started struggling against the men holding him down. **_"Help!"_**

The woman only chuckled as the Hypno started swinging his pendulum. "That's not gonna work, honey. Those paintings on the wall are sound-proofing."

"I should've known! No sane person has that many paintings! You aren't Ms. Johnson or a therapist!"

"I'm offended by the suggestion." The woman put a hand over her heart in mock outrage. "I _am_ Ms. Johnson _and_ a licensed therapist. I help all my patients relax and destress. I just also happen to have ulterior motives."

Raihan found his eyes glued to Hypno's pendulum. "You're not going to get away with this!"

"Cute. That's what Bede always says." Ms. Johnson leaned back in her chair. "Marnie, on the other hand, threatened to unleash her brother on us. Of course, all of your threats mean nothing when you can't remember who you were threatening or that you even made threats in the first place."

Raihan managed to momentarily force his eyes to meet Ms. Johnson before they snapped back to Hypno's pendulum. "Who are you? Who do you work for?"

"That's not important." Out of the corner of his eye, Raihan saw Ms. Johnson get up and fish a blue and yellow pokéball out of her pocket: Raihan's pokéball. "Marnie gave this to me when we met, though it wasn't easy. She put up a heavy mental resistance. I think she was trying to protect you, which I guess shows she _does_ care about you. Too bad you're not going to remember that."

Raihan fought to pull his arm away from the thug, but it was quickly held back down. Ms. Johnson got closer, so Raihan attempted to kick her in the shin, only for her to back away before his hit could connect.

She continued, "We've been trying to get our hands on one of these for a long time. Bede only had vague information on how they worked, and we couldn't get access to his pokéball. We may be willing to hypnotise Gym Leaders, but going after Gloria herself was a bit too risky, even for our tastes. But now we don't have to, because we have both a pokéball and the person it is linked to."

Raihan felt his eyes droop as he fought to stay conscious. "I'll find you! I'll stop you!"

"Not after today you won't." Ms. Johnson lifted Raihan's chin, forcing him to look her in the eyes. They were bright blue. "Now, let's find out how to catch a human."

* * *

Raihan woke up in a cold sweat and surveyed his surroundings. He was home in his bed. Raihan let out a breath he didn't know he was holding in. He was regularly plagued by nightmares he couldn't remember and had been for years. Only vague feelings of being outnumbered and surrounded by enemies remained in the morning. Ms. Johnson didn't seem to help get rid of those.

Despite this, she had definitely helped in general: Raihan's overbearing sense of dread he had been plagued with since the Darkest Day had all but evaporated. In fact, Raihan regretted not taking Bede's offer the first time. In hindsight, the idea of an underground conspiracy was a ridiculous idea. No one was out to get him, or his friends, or his colleagues, or all of Galar, or the entire planet.

Raihan frowned as he felt unease in his stomach, like something was missing, but the feeling quickly subsided. There was no reason for him to be concerned or afraid. After all, nothing is suspicious. Everything is fine. The future is bright. You might even say, "bright as plasma".

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so happy Raihan got exactly the therapy he needed! He suffered so much during this story, I felt he needed a break.
> 
> On a completely unrelated note, here's an awesome remix of one of the best songs from Gen 5: https://youtu.be/Zb8G92Y6KHc


End file.
